Hobart Bike Kitchen

Hi there,

Good work, thanks for supporting bike shops. I do something similar at my small bike shop here in the Yukon. I recycle donated bikes by welding a name plate in front of the left, rear dropout and painting them completely purple, sometimes brakes, cranks and derailleurs too, never pedals, chains, wheels or grips, so they still look classy. There are over sixty bikes in the fleet and they are mostly named after gods of various pantheons; Mesopotamian, Greek, Indian and others, though I got tired of that and started naming them after cheeses.
The deal is you leave a deposite of either $100 or $150 depending whether your bikes have steel or alloy (most are alloy) wheels, the first day is $10 then it’s $1/day there after up to half your deposite. So you can get a bike for $50, maintenance included, for the season, which is up to 6 months of ice free roads. They salt the roads here when its not too cold, it’s bad for bikes. Most of the renters are the transient workers who come for the summer tourism and mining jobs, but several local oganizations and even government departments are starting to use them too.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s self supporting and pays a little bit and it gets great publicity for the shop. There are a few butted full cr-mo frames in the fleet, it’s mostly basic bikes, but I get complimented often on how well they run, which is great for bikes which were heading to the dump.
I’m considering cycle touring in your part of the world in January/February and would like to visit and help out. I’d be happy to meet some of the local cycling community and build a few bikes. If I could build a solid bike to tour on, something basic, I’d be more than happy to leave it there. It saves me having to transport a bike half way around the planet and back, all I’d have to carry would be panniers and gear.

Philippe LeBlond,
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory